Building Site Injury Claims

Claim compensation on your construction site injury

Working in the construction sector can pose many potential health and safety risks if you
are not properly equipped or provided with a safe area in which to work. Construction and
building site injuries are relatively commonplace due to the unfortunate risks associated with
such work, but it doesn’t mean you have to cope on your own with the injury you may have
suffered.

It is commonly due to cost cutting or lack of awareness that building site injuries happen.
Contractors must have the proper work equipment to perform the task and this should reduce
risk of injury. An example is using a ladder – some 20 years ago, climbing a flimsy ladder
was commonplace and no-one thought twice about it if they worked on a building site or used
it for window cleaning etc, but now there are much stricter laws in place.

In most cases, the site management will accept liability for the claim and the process can be
resolved quite quickly. In other cases, it may be quite a long process to claim building site
injury compensation, so make sure you have appropriate evidence of the series of events
leading up to the building site injury. Your injury could have taken place when you were:

Renovating a property

Redecorating a property

Undertaking outside maintenance

Undertaking structural work to a property

Property demolition

Service installation, such as electricity, water or telephone

You might be surprised at just how many people end up having horrific accidents
whilst working on a construction site. If the victim has done similar work for years,
it’s easy to become complacent and think there is no hazard posed on the building
site, but accidents can happen at any time and you might have been one of the
unlucky ones. Perhaps you lost your footing on a loose floorboard? Or maybe falling
debris knocked you down? You could be entitled to claim if this has happened to you.

The duty of care lies with the employer, site occupiers, main contractors and even
your other construction workers. You should all be looking out for each other when
the work you are doing is considered dangerous. Even the most professional and
skilled construction workers can fall victim to structural collapses and falling objects.
The tools you have and the protective equipment you are given is key in your building
site injury claim. Was the equipment provided insufficient or defective? As standard,
anyone who works on a building site should be issued with:

Hard hats

Harnesses

Safety clothing

Safety matting

In addition to this, training is essential. Has your employer provided you with
appropriate training and is it ongoing? Of course, accidents do happen and if you
have been the victim of a building site accident, you could claim building site injury
compensation.